Hansen's Notebook: Tucson High honors ex-Cat Harris, UA should do same
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Tucson High football coach Justin Argraves did the right thing last week when he decided to honor Mesa Desert Ridge assistant coach Sean Harris before the Badgers-Jaguars game Friday night.
“I told my administration that I wanted to acknowledge Sean before we kick off, and bring him out to midfield,” said Argraves. “I haven’t mentioned anything to Sean because I wanted to surprise him. He’s definitely one of the all-time Badger greats.”
Harris seemed genuinely touched by the brief ceremony, in which he was presented with a red THS helmet. It was a nice homecoming; Sean’s wife, Cha-Ron Walker Harris was a key part to Arizona’s NCAA basketball tournament teams under Joan Bonvicini in the late ’90s, and their two sons, senior Jalen Harris and freshman Jason Harris are among the most hotly recruited athletes in the state.
Jalen, a pass rusher, has committed to follow his father’s footsteps at Arizona. Jason, a 6-foot 8-inch freshman, might be the state’s top two-sport athlete. He starts for the defending state champion Jaguars football team but his best sport is probably basketball; he has already been offered a scholarship by Oregon State and is on Sean Miller’s radar at Arizona.
Now it’s up to Arizona to do the right thing and put Sean Harris’ name in the Ring of Honor at Arizona Stadium.
Sean Harris’ coach at THS, Todd Mayfield, told me last week that Harris has long been miffed at his alma mater for being slow to recognize his excellence as a key part of the Desert Swarm defenses of 1992-94.
Harris, one of five Wildcats pictured on the cover of the 1994 Sports Illustrated college football issue, was a third-team All-American in 1994, a two-time All-Pac-10 linebacker who made 248 solo tackles, which remains sixth in school history. He made more UA tackles than highly-respected Lance Briggs.
Harris’ name is conspicuously missing from the Ring of Honor; he had a UA career superior to many honored, such as linebackers Brant Boyer and Antonio Pierce, neither of whom was a first-team All-Pac-10 player.
The UA tweaked its rules to hang Miles Simon’s basketball jersey at McKale Center, and it needs to do the same to put Sean Harris’ name on display for posterity at Arizona Stadium.
Sean and Jalen Harris are likely to become one of the five leading father-child combinations in UA sports history. Here’s my vote for the top four:
1. Ron Hassey and Brad Hassey, both all-conference baseball players.
2. Robbie Dosty and Whitney Dosty. Robbie was a star-level basketball player until he blew out a knee. Whitney was a standout volleyball player.
3. Jack Howell and Jack Howell Jr. The elder Howell was one of the key players on Arizona’s first-ever NCAA basketball tournament team; his son, Jack, who became a big-league third baseman, was a slugger on Jerry Kindall’s 1983 team.
4. John Black and John Black Jr. The elder Black was an All-Border Conference running back in 1940; his son was a UA football standout in 1970.
Waiting list: Joe Turner and his daughter Jade Turner. Joe was essentially the sixth man for Arizona’s 1988 Final Four team; his daughter Jade is a starting volleyball player as a redshirt sophomore.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Southern Arizona’s top sports event of the month has nothing to do with football. It is the third annual Desert Solstice cross-country meet that will be held Friday night — yes, night — at Crooked Tree Golf Course adjacent to Mountain View High School.
Mountain View cross country coach Adam Vargas has gone beyond the extra mile by organizing a competition that includes about 100 teams and close to 1,500 runners from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
To make it even more appealing, Rio Rico High School’s Allie Schadler, who is probably the top distance runner ever to grow up in Southern Arizona, or at least comparable to Santa Rita’s Tom Ansberry of the 1980s, is in the field. Schadler won the girls top event by more than a minute last year.
Schadler is scheduled to run in the top event of the night, beginning at 9:30. The boys final begins at 9 p.m. Hundreds of boys and girls from middle school, high school freshman and junior varsity teams, will run between 5:30 and 9.
“There are usually about 1,000 spectators,” said Rich Mueller, director of golf at Crooked Tree, who works with Vargas to make the meet go. “It’s a really cool scene out here at night with all the tents and people. The course runs around the back nine and finishes near the 18th green.”
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Scott Schultz, head pro, Oro Valley Country Club, is the Tucson athlete of the week.
In an attempt to raise money for the First Tee of Tucson, Schultz solicited contributions from OVCC members for a bold plan to play six rounds of golf last Monday, one after another, with literally no break between each round.
Incredibly, Schultz played those six rounds (108 holes) in 8½ hours. He shot 69, 70, 70, 75, 78 and 79. That’s just 9-over par for the day. He even had a hole-in-one at the 155-yard No. 17 hole.
When Schultz finished, he had raised $2,000 for the First Tee of Tucson. His only help came from OVCC membership chairman Jack Talmage, who drove the cart, raked the bunkers and held the flag while Schultz putted. Amazing.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Pima College opened its football season Friday by driving 824 miles in two buses to Colorado Springs, Colo., where the Aztecs beat the Air Force Prep Academy 42-24. The Aztecs then hopped back on the buses and returned to Tucson at about 4 a.m. But coach Jim Monaco probably had a smile on his face into the wee hours, noting that newbie quarterback Justin Martin, a freshman from Pueblo High School, passed for 400 yards and threw five touchdown passes in his JC debut. A year ago, Martin rushed for 812 yards at Pueblo, and passed for 1,609 with 16 touchdowns. He’ll need to be at his best on Saturday when the Aztecs make another long bus journey to play No. 12 Arizona Western in Yuma.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Jason Romero, who was probably the top athlete in any sport at PCC last year, the ACCAC men’s soccer Player of the Year, made an immediate impact for UCLA’s 16th-ranked men’s soccer team last week. Romero scored UCLA’s only goal in a 1-1 tie against Maryland.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Former Sunnyside wrestler Thom Ortiz has been selected as part of ASU’s 2016 Sports Hall of Fame class; he will be inducted October 8. Ortiz will be the sixth Tucsonan in the Sun Devils Hall of Fame, joining fellow Sunnyside wrestlers Eric Larkin and the late Eddie Urbano, Sahuaro wide receiver John Mistler, Pueblo basketball guard Fat Lever and former UA and Salpointe head football coach Ed Doherty. Up next? How about former Catalina Foothills softball player Jackie Vasquez Theodorakis, who was on the All-Women’s College World Series team when the Sun Devils won the 2008 national championship.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
I walked through the foyer of the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on Friday and saw the UA baseball team running the steep stairways to the press box. It’s 5½ months until the 2017 season opener. Not that coach Jay Johnson is letting off the accelerator. He got a recruiting commitment last week from Glendale Mountain Ridge lefty Matt Liberatore, a Class of 2018 prospect some believe will be the state’s No. 1 pitcher by his senior year. Liberatore struck out 39 batters for Mountain Ridge last spring and pitched in the state championship game as a sophomore. Johnson and the 2016 Wildcats will be honored by the Arizona Diamondbacks before the Sept. 18 game against the Dodgers at Chase Field. It’s probably the best spotlight the D’backs could provide; they will surely draw fewer than 2 million fans for the first time in franchise history, but the Sunday 1 p.m., game against the Dodgers is likely to draw in excess of 30,000.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Former Canyon del Oro baseball standout Ryan Retz was the MVP of the Pecos League baseball playoffs for the Tucson Saguaros this summer, hitting .345 overall. He was then signed by the Kansas City T-Bones of the American Association, the top independent league in baseball. Retz hit .307 in his first 10 games in Kansas City, whose season ends Monday. In 2013, Retz was an all-Big South second team pick while playing for High Point.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Seattle Mariners traded Salpointe Catholic grad Jio Orozco to the Yankees last week, which is an indication of Orozco’s value. The right-hander has struck out 63 batters in 48 Arizona Rookie League innings for the Mariners and last winter was ranked the No. 24 overall prospect in the Seattle system. He was traded with another Mariners prospect for Yankee outfield Triple-A prospect Ben Gamel. Baseball American wrote that Orozco has a fastball that tops out at 95 mph and projects as a “potentially useful major-league reliever.’’
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Sunnyside and PCC grad Stefen Romero was named to the All-Pacific Coast League team for hitting .311 with 21 homers and 84 RBI for the Tacoma Rainers this season. He has since been recalled by Seattle, although he had just 17 at-bats through Friday. Other than Romero and Orozco, the top Tucson-affiliated prospects in the minors were probably identified last week when ex-Sahuaro outfielder Alex Verdugo, and former UA players Scott Kingery, Brandon Dixon, Willie Calhoun and James Farris all were added to Arizona Fall League rosters.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
I have in my possession an absorbing new book “Miller Time,’’ which is essentially the life story of John Miller, father of UA coach Sean Miller.
It is 255 pages of insight into the development of Miller and the life and times of his family, especially his father, a legendary coach from Western Pennsylvania.
John Miller overcame polio, survived being run over by a semi-truck and, well, it’s like something out of a movie.
When I learned the book was written by a first-time author, David Burhenn, a school teacher in Aliquippa, Pa., I suspected it might be a thin, superficial, hero-worship type work you can get for 99 cents online and read in 25 minutes.
But this one has substance and details I’ve never heard about Miller and his basketball-centric family. It is outstanding.
“My dad gave me the greatest gift that one can, and that is attention,’’ Sean Miller tells Burhenn. “I was around him all the time. There wasn’t a game or practice or any event in his life that I wasn’t good enough to go with him. A lot of myself now as a person and as a coach comes from me watching him as a kid.’’
The book will be available via Word Association Publishers later this month. I’ll write a full story about it later this week.
Tucson High football coach Justin Argraves did the right thing last week when he decided to honor Mesa Desert Ridge assistant coach Sean Harris before the Badgers-Jaguars game Friday night.
“I told my administration that I wanted to acknowledge Sean before we kick off, and bring him out to midfield,” said Argraves. “I haven’t mentioned anything to Sean because I wanted to surprise him. He’s definitely one of the all-time Badger greats.”
Harris seemed genuinely touched by the brief ceremony, in which he was presented with a red THS helmet. It was a nice homecoming; Sean’s wife, Cha-Ron Walker Harris was a key part to Arizona’s NCAA basketball tournament teams under Joan Bonvicini in the late ’90s, and their two sons, senior Jalen Harris and freshman Jason Harris are among the most hotly recruited athletes in the state.
Jalen, a pass rusher, has committed to follow his father’s footsteps at Arizona. Jason, a 6-foot 8-inch freshman, might be the state’s top two-sport athlete. He starts for the defending state champion Jaguars football team but his best sport is probably basketball; he has already been offered a scholarship by Oregon State and is on Sean Miller’s radar at Arizona.
Now it’s up to Arizona to do the right thing and put Sean Harris’ name in the Ring of Honor at Arizona Stadium.
Sean Harris’ coach at THS, Todd Mayfield, told me last week that Harris has long been miffed at his alma mater for being slow to recognize his excellence as a key part of the Desert Swarm defenses of 1992-94.
Harris, one of five Wildcats pictured on the cover of the 1994 Sports Illustrated college football issue, was a third-team All-American in 1994, a two-time All-Pac-10 linebacker who made 248 solo tackles, which remains sixth in school history. He made more UA tackles than highly-respected Lance Briggs.
Harris’ name is conspicuously missing from the Ring of Honor; he had a UA career superior to many honored, such as linebackers Brant Boyer and Antonio Pierce, neither of whom was a first-team All-Pac-10 player.
The UA tweaked its rules to hang Miles Simon’s basketball jersey at McKale Center, and it needs to do the same to put Sean Harris’ name on display for posterity at Arizona Stadium.
Sean and Jalen Harris are likely to become one of the five leading father-child combinations in UA sports history. Here’s my vote for the top four:
1. Ron Hassey and Brad Hassey, both all-conference baseball players.
2. Robbie Dosty and Whitney Dosty. Robbie was a star-level basketball player until he blew out a knee. Whitney was a standout volleyball player.
3. Jack Howell and Jack Howell Jr. The elder Howell was one of the key players on Arizona’s first-ever NCAA basketball tournament team; his son, Jack, who became a big-league third baseman, was a slugger on Jerry Kindall’s 1983 team.
4. John Black and John Black Jr. The elder Black was an All-Border Conference running back in 1940; his son was a UA football standout in 1970.
Waiting list: Joe Turner and his daughter Jade Turner. Joe was essentially the sixth man for Arizona’s 1988 Final Four team; his daughter Jade is a starting volleyball player as a redshirt sophomore.
Southern Arizona’s top sports event of the month has nothing to do with football. It is the third annual Desert Solstice cross-country meet that will be held Friday night — yes, night — at Crooked Tree Golf Course adjacent to Mountain View High School.
Mountain View cross country coach Adam Vargas has gone beyond the extra mile by organizing a competition that includes about 100 teams and close to 1,500 runners from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
To make it even more appealing, Rio Rico High School’s Allie Schadler, who is probably the top distance runner ever to grow up in Southern Arizona, or at least comparable to Santa Rita’s Tom Ansberry of the 1980s, is in the field. Schadler won the girls top event by more than a minute last year.
Schadler is scheduled to run in the top event of the night, beginning at 9:30. The boys final begins at 9 p.m. Hundreds of boys and girls from middle school, high school freshman and junior varsity teams, will run between 5:30 and 9.
“There are usually about 1,000 spectators,” said Rich Mueller, director of golf at Crooked Tree, who works with Vargas to make the meet go. “It’s a really cool scene out here at night with all the tents and people. The course runs around the back nine and finishes near the 18th green.”
Scott Schultz, head pro, Oro Valley Country Club, is the Tucson athlete of the week.
In an attempt to raise money for the First Tee of Tucson, Schultz solicited contributions from OVCC members for a bold plan to play six rounds of golf last Monday, one after another, with literally no break between each round.
Incredibly, Schultz played those six rounds (108 holes) in 8½ hours. He shot 69, 70, 70, 75, 78 and 79. That’s just 9-over par for the day. He even had a hole-in-one at the 155-yard No. 17 hole.
When Schultz finished, he had raised $2,000 for the First Tee of Tucson. His only help came from OVCC membership chairman Jack Talmage, who drove the cart, raked the bunkers and held the flag while Schultz putted. Amazing.
Pima College opened its football season Friday by driving 824 miles in two buses to Colorado Springs, Colo., where the Aztecs beat the Air Force Prep Academy 42-24. The Aztecs then hopped back on the buses and returned to Tucson at about 4 a.m. But coach Jim Monaco probably had a smile on his face into the wee hours, noting that newbie quarterback Justin Martin, a freshman from Pueblo High School, passed for 400 yards and threw five touchdown passes in his JC debut. A year ago, Martin rushed for 812 yards at Pueblo, and passed for 1,609 with 16 touchdowns. He’ll need to be at his best on Saturday when the Aztecs make another long bus journey to play No. 12 Arizona Western in Yuma.
Jason Romero, who was probably the top athlete in any sport at PCC last year, the ACCAC men’s soccer Player of the Year, made an immediate impact for UCLA’s 16th-ranked men’s soccer team last week. Romero scored UCLA’s only goal in a 1-1 tie against Maryland.
Former Sunnyside wrestler Thom Ortiz has been selected as part of ASU’s 2016 Sports Hall of Fame class; he will be inducted October 8. Ortiz will be the sixth Tucsonan in the Sun Devils Hall of Fame, joining fellow Sunnyside wrestlers Eric Larkin and the late Eddie Urbano, Sahuaro wide receiver John Mistler, Pueblo basketball guard Fat Lever and former UA and Salpointe head football coach Ed Doherty. Up next? How about former Catalina Foothills softball player Jackie Vasquez Theodorakis, who was on the All-Women’s College World Series team when the Sun Devils won the 2008 national championship.
I walked through the foyer of the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility on Friday and saw the UA baseball team running the steep stairways to the press box. It’s 5½ months until the 2017 season opener. Not that coach Jay Johnson is letting off the accelerator. He got a recruiting commitment last week from Glendale Mountain Ridge lefty Matt Liberatore, a Class of 2018 prospect some believe will be the state’s No. 1 pitcher by his senior year. Liberatore struck out 39 batters for Mountain Ridge last spring and pitched in the state championship game as a sophomore. Johnson and the 2016 Wildcats will be honored by the Arizona Diamondbacks before the Sept. 18 game against the Dodgers at Chase Field. It’s probably the best spotlight the D’backs could provide; they will surely draw fewer than 2 million fans for the first time in franchise history, but the Sunday 1 p.m., game against the Dodgers is likely to draw in excess of 30,000.
Former Canyon del Oro baseball standout Ryan Retz was the MVP of the Pecos League baseball playoffs for the Tucson Saguaros this summer, hitting .345 overall. He was then signed by the Kansas City T-Bones of the American Association, the top independent league in baseball. Retz hit .307 in his first 10 games in Kansas City, whose season ends Monday. In 2013, Retz was an all-Big South second team pick while playing for High Point.
The Seattle Mariners traded Salpointe Catholic grad Jio Orozco to the Yankees last week, which is an indication of Orozco’s value. The right-hander has struck out 63 batters in 48 Arizona Rookie League innings for the Mariners and last winter was ranked the No. 24 overall prospect in the Seattle system. He was traded with another Mariners prospect for Yankee outfield Triple-A prospect Ben Gamel. Baseball American wrote that Orozco has a fastball that tops out at 95 mph and projects as a “potentially useful major-league reliever.’’
Sunnyside and PCC grad Stefen Romero was named to the All-Pacific Coast League team for hitting .311 with 21 homers and 84 RBI for the Tacoma Rainers this season. He has since been recalled by Seattle, although he had just 17 at-bats through Friday. Other than Romero and Orozco, the top Tucson-affiliated prospects in the minors were probably identified last week when ex-Sahuaro outfielder Alex Verdugo, and former UA players Scott Kingery, Brandon Dixon, Willie Calhoun and James Farris all were added to Arizona Fall League rosters.
I have in my possession an absorbing new book “Miller Time,’’ which is essentially the life story of John Miller, father of UA coach Sean Miller.
It is 255 pages of insight into the development of Miller and the life and times of his family, especially his father, a legendary coach from Western Pennsylvania.
John Miller overcame polio, survived being run over by a semi-truck and, well, it’s like something out of a movie.
When I learned the book was written by a first-time author, David Burhenn, a school teacher in Aliquippa, Pa., I suspected it might be a thin, superficial, hero-worship type work you can get for 99 cents online and read in 25 minutes.
But this one has substance and details I’ve never heard about Miller and his basketball-centric family. It is outstanding.
“My dad gave me the greatest gift that one can, and that is attention,’’ Sean Miller tells Burhenn. “I was around him all the time. There wasn’t a game or practice or any event in his life that I wasn’t good enough to go with him. A lot of myself now as a person and as a coach comes from me watching him as a kid.’’
The book will be available via Word Association Publishers later this month. I’ll write a full story about it later this week.
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